Laws set age limit on trick-or-treating kids

How is it even possible to make laws stating that you can't go ring someone's doorbell past a certain age? If someone isn't comfortable with the trick-or-treaters, they can just not go to the door, just like with anyone else. What about the kids that develop early? You get boobs and you aren't allowed to go?

12 seems really young to set as a limit. That's right when kids get to the age where they need something innocent to do for fun - especially on holidays like Halloween.

The last time I went (other than taking my nephew out) was when I was 15 (I motherf*cking love Halloween.) We actually had a cop stop and talk to us, because some sh!t had gone down and they were trying to figure out if it was us. My BF at the time and maybe a couple other guys with us had black trench coats on, but hey, this was pre-Columbine era! (Jesus, I feel old.)

But he didn't tell us we were too old for trick-or-treating. It was a small town, and nothing else to do. What could we have said if he had told us to bug off? "Okay, officer, we'll just go back to playing truth-or-dare in the woods. You know, last time someone ended up giving themselves a blow job! You know how silly kids are, who knows what sort of sex acts might happen if we get bored for long enough. We already went through the cigarettes, but we know where we can score some weed."

And really, I was a good kid. There were much naughtier kids that I know went trick-or-treating, so I'd hate to think of what they would have done with less to do.

Have you ever looked out your peephole and felt scared of a trick-or-treater? You're not alone. Mayor Mark Eckhert of Belleville, Ill., says he's heard a ton of complaints from frightened single mothers and senior citizens who are less than happy about the “6-foot-tall kids” that ring their doorbells on Halloween. His solution: To create an ordinance banning high-school teenagers—that is, anyone over the age of 12—from trick-or-treating.

"When I was a kid my father said to me, 'You're too damn big to be going trick-or-treating. You're done,’" Eckhert told ABC News. "When that doesn't happen, then that's reason for the city governments to intervene."

Intervening, in this case, means putting an age limit on trick-or-treaters, and threatening the over-12 set with a $100 fine for those who ignore the law—though, according to ABC, that fine has rarely, if ever, been actually meted out. And while some residents of Belleville have complained about the ordinance, it seems that many more are relieved. Trick-or-treat age limits have also been popular in townships in South Carolina, Mississippi, Maryland, and Virginia.
However comforting these restrictions may be to some, we can't help but wonder: Are laws the right way to go when we're teaching kids about becoming better adults?

Because, honestly, many of us—myself included— were teenage trick-or-treaters. How it happened for me is probably less important than why (I can try to blame other factors, but the truth is, I just loved free candy). You know when you're aware that you are doing something wrong, but you do it anyway, hoping that you'll pass unnoticed? Well, I quickly learned I couldn't: “You gotta be kidding,” one neighbor said, staring sadly at my baby costume, slamming his door, and providing a necessary behavior adjustment all in one swift move.

While I learned my lesson through good, old-fashioned (and effective) humiliation, Eckhert and others believe that creating laws takes the guesswork away from those unclear about when they are no longer eligible for receiving treats. But not everyone is convinced that excluding teens from the relatively tame activity of trick-or-treating is a great idea. "Trick-or-treating in a large part is embraced in this country because it serves to cut down on teenage vandalism," University of North Dakota history professor and early traditions expert, Hans Broedel, told ABC News. "Certainly telling teenagers they can't go trick-or-treating isn't going to stop them from going out on Halloween and doing whatever."

What do you think? Should overage kids be legally banned from trick-or-treating? And how old is too old for trick-or-treating?

And Marie Antoinette is off the table in Merryville, Missouri, where women are banned from wearing corsets. The age old law is designed to prevent women from denying men "the privilege of admiring the curvaceous, unencumbered body of a young woman should not be denied to the normal, red-blooded American male." But men are subject to some laws too. Like no goofy mustaches that make people laugh in Alabama churches. And male staff-members of the Nevada Legislature are banned from wearing penis costumes while the legislature is in session. There's got to be a back-story behind that one.

Eckhert should follow this up with a more blanket ban against 13 year olds and older knocking on doors or ringing doorbells.

The principle appears to be the shock of people -- secure in their homes -- at the sheer size of strangers at their doors when they are obviously expecting hobbits, leprechauns and other little people.

Since it is not possible to know beforehand without doubt if the person coming to open the door is a single mother, or old, the ban should cover everyone. Why should bodybuilders be discriminated against? I also am shocked when someone as tall as I am comes to my door.

As long as they wear a costume in the spirit of trick or treating (or are escorting a younger sibling), I don't see a problem with it. It's the douches that show up at the door in a t-shirt and jeans because they are "too cool" to wear a costume but still want free candy who piss me off.

"When I was a kid my father said to me, 'You're too damn big to be going trick-or-treating. You're done,’" Eckhert told ABC News. "When that doesn't happen, then that's reason for the city governments to intervene."

Just think of all the ways the government could intervene when things your father said to you don't happen.

Also, instead of trick-or-treating, the older kids can now form vigilante gangs and hunt down illegal trick-or-treaters and dispense justice.

I think placing an arbitrary age on something like this is....well dumb. I stopped at age 13 or 14 but on my own accord.

It is called trick OR treat. Give the kids some candy or get some toilet paper on your house later that night! If I saw some 20 something coming to my door I might think wtf, but let some teenagers have fun.

"We live in a primitive time, don't we? Neither savage nor wise. Half measures of the curse of it" Hannibal Lector

I don't need a law to tell me to not hand out candy to older kids. I stopped trick or treating when I was probably 9 or maybe even younger. I never enjoyed it. When I started handing out candy, I wouldn't give anything to kids not in costume or kids I deemed ''too old''. Now, I just don't bother with the holiday.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." - John 3:16
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White miscer adopts black baby: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=155917153

I don't need a law to tell me to not hand out candy to older kids. I stopped trick or treating when I was probably 9 or maybe even younger. I never enjoyed it. When I started handing out candy, I wouldn't give anything to kids not in costume or kids I deemed ''too old''. Now, I just don't bother with the holiday.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." - John 3:16
IG: @bolasmccoy
White miscer adopts black baby: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=155917153

How is it even possible to make laws stating that you can't go ring someone's doorbell past a certain age? If someone isn't comfortable with the trick-or-treaters, they can just not go to the door, just like with anyone else. What about the kids that develop early? You get boobs and you aren't allowed to go?

12 seems really young to set as a limit. That's right when kids get to the age where they need something innocent to do for fun - especially on holidays like Halloween.

The last time I went (other than taking my nephew out) was when I was 15 (I motherf*cking love Halloween.) We actually had a cop stop and talk to us, because some sh!t had gone down and they were trying to figure out if it was us. My BF at the time and maybe a couple other guys with us had black trench coats on, but hey, this was pre-Columbine era! (Jesus, I feel old.)

But he didn't tell us we were too old for trick-or-treating. It was a small town, and nothing else to do. What could we have said if he had told us to bug off? "Okay, officer, we'll just go back to playing truth-or-dare in the woods. You know, last time someone ended up giving themselves a blow job! You know how silly kids are, who knows what sort of sex acts might happen if we get bored for long enough. We already went through the cigarettes, but we know where we can score some weed."

And really, I was a good kid. There were much naughtier kids that I know went trick-or-treating, so I'd hate to think of what they would have done with less to do.

It's the same type BS thinking that prohibited cruising down the boulavard when I was a kid. We called it "the strip", and most bigger cities had em. Just out of curiosity, how many of you never have had the pleasure of cruising your machine down the boulavard on a friday night, and the sidewalks were full of people, streets bumper to bumper, everyone else there having a good time?

It's the same type BS thinking that prohibited cruising down the boulavard when I was a kid. We called it "the strip", and most bigger cities had em. Just out of curiosity, how many of you never have had the pleasure of cruising your machine down the boulavard on a friday night, and the sidewalks were full of people, streets bumper to bumper, everyone else there having a good time?

Don't think this has happened since the early 90's, unless you go to a spring break spot.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." - John 3:16
IG: @bolasmccoy
White miscer adopts black baby: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=155917153

It's the same type BS thinking that prohibited cruising down the boulavard when I was a kid. We called it "the strip", and most bigger cities had em. Just out of curiosity, how many of you never have had the pleasure of cruising your machine down the boulavard on a friday night, and the sidewalks were full of people, streets bumper to bumper, everyone else there having a good time?

It's the same type BS thinking that prohibited cruising down the boulavard when I was a kid. We called it "the strip", and most bigger cities had em. Just out of curiosity, how many of you never have had the pleasure of cruising your machine down the boulavard on a friday night, and the sidewalks were full of people, streets bumper to bumper, everyone else there having a good time?

good times indeed but unfortunately this one can't be blamed on the gov since most gangs have ruined it for everyone.

Ordinances like this are created when citizens allow their representatives to place more important issues on the back burner.

I think its silly a group of people got up in the morning, went to city hall or wherever, and actually discussed placing an age limit on those allowed to obtain freely distributed goods.

Anyway, I'm done.

Now if you will all excuse me, I am off to give a presentation to neighborhood kids on how to properly toilet paper and egg a house. "Trick or Treat" isn't simply a charming phrase uttered by grade schoolers in search of a diabetic coma - it's a decision given to home owners and renters throughout America. It's sad a whole generation has forgotten that.

Hums the theme to Superman during planks and LYTPs. Now that you've read this, you will too.

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Take your legs totally out of the equation. Lift with your lower back in a jerking, twisting motion.
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